merry christmas and happy new year 2014

designed by: jsoldevila
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Spanish National Health Service: diagnosis and proposals to move forward

The Spanish Association of Health Economics has launched the 2nd diagnostic report on the Spanish National Health Service (SNHS) made by several of its members (50). The first diagnostic report was done in 2008.

The report consists of four broad based chapters:

1. Financing and Public Coverage: (published 10th december 2013)
2. Healthcare Organisation: (expected 17th december 2013)
3. Health Policies: (expected 14th january 2014)
4. Good Health Governance: (expected 21 january 2014)

The objectives of this document are to diagnose the SNHS, put together a set of proposals (a total of 166) and measures to support its solvency and then place these factors under discussion.

A good report to read not only economists. The Association invite all health care professionals, patients, politicians and citizens to discuss the ideas.

Acces: 
Summary and proposals (in english)
Permanent discussion and acces to documents: 

photo: (*) Photosolde
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the relevance gap between researcher's interests and society: A proposals open to criticism

Paul Nightingale and Alister Scott from the University of Sussex at the Science Policy Research Unit  published in 2007 the article Peer review and the relevance gap: ten suggestions for policy-makers

The paper explores how academic research becomes divorced from wider society and the consequences of this for both society and academia.

They suggest 10 suggestions for policy-makers:

1. Do not fund research again that comes to the conclusion that ‘more research is needed’.
2. Funders should recognise the distinction between relevance and academic impact.
3. Within peer review, encourage and protect research that aims to be relevant and interdisciplinary, and ensure that protection is effective.
4. Stop using interdisciplinarity as a proxy for relevance and focus on relevance itself.
5. Funders should end the ‘closed shop’ whereby academics have a monopoly on research funding.
6. Funding bodies should insert explicit relevance criteria within the peer-review process, and provide guidance to reviewers on what those criteria are and how they should be treated.
7. Only fund research that shows a clear and rigorous understanding of the diverse actors involved in the field of enquiry, and their questions and needs.
8. Funding agencies should recognise that relevant research is intensive and requires long-term commitment.
9. Funding agencies should recognise the inherent limitations of ‘knowledge transfer’.
10. Policy-makers should recognise vested interests within the existing research community, and how they might invoke the three Sirens of: academic objectivity; academic autonomy; and academic quality, to avoid having to deal with relevance criteria.

Last sentence of the article: "Put a closer focus on society’s real research needs, rather than those agendas currently being defined and appropriated by a small coterie of professionals." 

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Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images. View across the Pont Alexandre III bridge toward the Grand Palace, Paris, 1946.

clinical governance, clinical management, clinical practice

Do "clinical governance" definitions adequately distinguish between governance, management and practice functions?

The article published by Niamh M. Brennan, Maureen A. Flynn (2013) introduces three definitions to put the term in the correct place.

Clinical governance has benn viewed by many authors as an "umbrella term" and too ambiguous. The study finds 29 different definitions.

Definitions of clinical governance, clinical management, clinical practice proposed by the authors:

• Clinical governance. Structures, systems, and standards applying to create a culture, and direct and control clinical activities. Clinical accountability and responsibility, a sub-set of clinical governance, involves the monitoring and oversight of clinical activities, including regulation, audit, assurance and compliance by governors (such as boards of directors), regulators (such as governments and professional bodies), internal auditors and external auditors.

• Clinical management. Processes and procedures, including resourcing clinical staff, by managers to efficiently, effectively and systematically deliver high quality, safe clinical care.

• Clinical practice. Delivery by clinicians of high quality, safe clinical care in compliance with clinical policies and performance standards, in the interests of patients.

Two important questions to consider for those health care institutions that are trying to define who want to be:

"For effective governance, it is important that there be division of duties between governance roles and management and practice roles. It is a fundamental principle of governance that governors cannot oversee and monitor their own work."

"Clinical quality will not improve unless governors, managers and practitioners take personal responsibility for the positions they hold and the functions they perform."

photo: (*) Photosolde
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We don't know what we 're doing in medicine.... or yes we know!

This sentence was expressed by Dr. Eddy on February, 4 1990 in Detroit Free Press. He recognized the importance of the gaps in medical decision making and the effect in the efficent use of healtch care resourses.

The empirical work of Dr. John Wennberg  and various colleagues tried to find some arguments to explain that. They focused on the study of "Small Area Variations (SAV)" the phenomenom that refers to the wide variations in the per-capita utilization rates for many medical and surgical procedures that are commonly found in comparing small, contiguus hospital service markets.

They have argued that much of the observed variation is closely related to the degree of physician uncertainty with respect to diagnosis and treatment and the differences in local opinions. He's the founder editor of  The Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care 

Is there any small area variations (SAV) evidence in Spain?: Take a look at ATLAS VPM a brilliant initiative coordinated by Enrique Bernal Delgado PhD in Medicine. Senior Researcher of the Research Unit in Health Services and Policies of Aragon Institute of Health Science.

They have published 8 Atlas:

8 Potentially Preventable Hospitalizations related to exacerbation of chronic diseases
7 Variability in Hospitalizations of older people in the NHS
6 Variability in Hospitalizations due to oncological surgery in the NHS
5 Variability in Hospitalizations due to mental health problems in acute care hospitals.
4 Variability in Hospitalization due to cardiovascular problems and procedures in the NHS
3 Variability in Pediatric Hospitalizations due to surgical and diagnostic procedures selected
2 Variability in General Surgery Interventions in the NHS
1 Variability in Orthopaedic Surgery and Traumatology. Hip fracture, knee replacement and hip replacement

photo: (*) Photosolde
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copagament-copago-copayment: evidence data in Catalonia

 

Co-payments (Co-pay, user charge): A fixed monetary payment that is made by the patient to the provider at the time of service.

PAYING FOR FORMERLY FREE MEDICINES IN SPAIN (july 2013). This working paper is the first attempt to provide accurate estimates of the overall impact at the regional level of a cost sharing reform on pharmaceutical prescriptions with regional variants established in Spain since July 2012 in the framework of heavy austerity reforms on public financing.

Conclusions:
It would be a mistake to increase cost sharing on medication across chronic and effective treatments. If one thing is clear from randomised and natural experiments, it is that cost sharing should be lower the greater the need for the treatment and the more effective that treatment is.

The high concentration of expenditure in patients with chronic conditions suggests the maintenance of low rates, together with the application of upper limits to the amount payable out of the patient’s pocket, either as a monetary amount that would be the same for all, or – a finer adjustment – as a percentage of each patient’s income. Otherwise, the cost in the form of greater use of emergency and hospital services may more than cancel out the savings made through cost sharing for chronic patients.

After decades trying unsuccessfully to reduce drug spending in the Spanish national health system through actions on prices and prescribers, the copayment established in mid 2012 led to a dramatic reduction in the use of drugs whose effect on health is not known.

Although the new copayment is modulated by income, a small portion of patients supports a large part of the expense.

Without disaggregated data is not possible to know who have reduced their use or what medicines are being left to take. Perhaps the moral abuse is reduced without adverse health effects, or even improving. But certain groups of patients may be enduring a financial burden or reducing the use of treatments needed, with high cost in terms of health loss.

Authors:
Jaume Puig-Junoy
University Lecturer at the Department of Economics and Business at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Main Researcher of the Centre for Research in Health and Economics (CRES). Interesting to visit his blog: pilleconomics

Beatriz González López-Valcárcel
Full Professor of Quantitative Methods in Economics from University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Associate Researcher of Centre for Research in Health and Economics (CRES).

Santiago Rodríguez Feijoo
Full Professor of Quantitative Methods in Economics from University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

W. Eugene Smith—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images (1951)
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is there any relation between life expectancy and health expenditure? OCDE Health data

 

Health spending continues to stagnate: Health spending remained flat across OECD countries in 2011 as the economic crisis continued to have an impact, particularly in those European countries hardest hit by the crisis according to the new data published by OECD.

• Greece, overall health spending dropped by 11% both in 2010 and 2011 after a yearly growth rate of more than 5% on average between 2000 and 2009. 
• Ireland, Iceland and Spain also experienced two consecutive years of negative growth in health spending. 
• Estonia and the Czech Republic, saw severe falls in spending in 2010 followed by a modest rebound in 2011. 
• Portugal and Italy, may have delayed cuts in 2010, but then reduced public health spending in 2011.
• Only two OECD countries – Israel and Japan – have seen an acceleration in health spending since 2009 compared with the period before. 

ACCES:  OECD Health Data 2013.
ACCES:  On-line database

Interesting to acces to the interactive charts about Life Expentancy, Health Expenditure, and Health Risks (smoking, alcohol). You can compare a single country with the OECD average.
Play a little bit with Spain.

ACCES:  Health Data Visualisations

photo: (*) Photosolde
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The Technology sector in Catalonia. Baròmetre del Sector Tecnològic a Catalunya 2013

The Technology Sector in Catalonia 2013 is the fifth edition of this report. It provides comprehensive analysis of the country’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) field. The nation’s ICT is well-consolidated and now has the potential to become one of Catalonia’s strategic sectors and growth drivers.

Some conclusions:

• While the crisis has affected the sector, the ICT field has fared much better than other industries.
• Internationalisation is a necessity, not an alternative. The firms that are internationalising, their markets have shrunk less and they are less dependent on public administration contracts. Furthermore, 43.6% of internationalising firms have seen a significant rise in their workforces whereas for non-international firms, this figure is 32.3%. The former have also experienced marked growth in both the number of their clients and turnover.
• The crisis has directly affected R&D but the outlook for 2013 appears to be brighter, especially for the internationalising firms, which envisage spending more on it this year. There is also a slight drop in the number of companies not carrying out R&D. Even so, universities have been particularly hard-hit by cuts in research. There seem to be more university-company technology transfers and collaboration, although there is still much to be done, especially with regards to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and micro-firms.
• The areas identified by the sector in 2013 as the technologies of the future were mobile computing, cloud computing and smart cities.
• Two major sectorial weaknesses are that many firms cater to the domestic market and that this has shrunk. Hurdles to internationalisation and the sectors lack of lobbying power are further weaknesses.
• Two major strengths are the Barcelona Brand and Catalan research capabilities. The competitiveness of firms, talents and staff are also plus points.
• Major threats are: lack of funding to drive the growth of new but well-established firms; the ‘brain drain’ caused by the crisis; a falling share in strategic sectors such as Health.
• With regard to opportunities, the sector stresses the hopes pinned on Mobile World Capital, and on the fact that Catalonia is a leader in areas such as Health, Smart Cities, Online Banking; Cultural Content.

Accés al document  Català, Castellà, English Report /Informe 2013
photo: (*) Photosolde
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if you'd like to understand what health economics is, don't miss Kenneth J. Arrow

In the introduction of the book "The Economics of Health and Health Care" from Sherman Folland, Allen C. Goodman and Miron Stano, the authors define: Health Economics is the study how resources are allocated to and within the health economy. The study of the production of health care and its distribution across population fall within this definition.

If you would like to understand a little bit more about what Health Economics is about, I recommed you to read one of the most influential articles in the health economics discipline:

UNCERTAINTY AND THE WELFARE ECONOMICS OF MEDICAL CARE by Kenneth Arrow published by the American Economic Review in 1963!.

Kenneth J. Arrow is an American economist and joint winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics with John Hicks in 1972.

The article finishes with this Postcript:

"I wish to repeat here what has been suggested above in several places: that the failure of the market to insure against uncertainties has created many social institutions in which the usual assumptions of the market are to some extent contradicted. The medical profession is only one example, though in many respects an extreme one. All professions share some of the same properties. The economic importance of personal and especially family relationships, though declining, is by no means trivial in the most advanced economies; it is based on non-market relations that create guarantees of behavior which would otherwise be afflicted with excessive uncertainty. Many other examples can be given. The logic and limitations of ideal competitive behavior under uncertainty force us to recognize the incomplete description of reality supplied by the impersonal price system."

Acces: Uncertainty J.K. Arrow (1963)

Francis Miller—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images.
Not originally published in LIFE, but printed elsewhere in the years since. Martin Luther King Jr. addresses the crowd during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, August 28, 1963.

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Back to essentials in management teams

 

Today I would like to recommend the reading of two classical articles. One related to explore yourself in a holistic approach and the other one related to be a member of a team.

1. Managing Oneself: by Peter F. Drucker
Drucker focus on the idea to develop a deep understanding of yourself. What are your most valuable strengths and most dangerous weaknesses? how do you learn and work with others? What are your most deeply held values? And in what type of work environment can you make the greatest contribution.

*Acces: BEST OF HBR 1999

2. The Discipline of Teams: by Jon R. Katzenbach and Douglas K.Smith
These two authors defined what a team is: “a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, set of performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.”

This definition is currently explained in most of management courses. Easy to put in a paper but difficult to implement in real life

* Acces: BEST OF HBR 1993

* To read the full article in Harvard Business Review you have to Register for free.

photo: (*) Photosolde
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Si la universitat genera coneixements però no els transfereix, la societat no se’n beneficia

Aquesta afirmació pertany a l'autora  Inés Macho-Standler, professora del Departament d'Economia i Història Econòmica de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona i investigadora del MOVE (Markets, Organizations and Votes in Economics), un Centre de Recerca CERCA.

A l'any 2010 l'autora va publicar un document anomenat Transferència de les Innovacions Universitàries als Opuscles del CREI, documents de difusió per al públic en general de la recerca que es fa en El Centre de Recerca en Economia Internacional (CREI), un altre centre CERCA.

Un article interessant de llegir i molt actual, on algunes de les seves conclusions són:

• El suport públic a les universitats i a altres centres d’investigació es justifica per la preferència que el sector privat té cap a la investigació més aplicada i amb el rendiment a curt termini, que comportaria una subinversió persistent en investigació fonamental o bàsica que resulta de més difícil apropiació i escàs valor comercial immediat.
• Les dues activitats primàries de la universitat són la docència, que transfereix coneixements directament i contribueix a la formació de les noves generacions de tècnics i d’investigadors, i la investigació, que transfereix nous descobriments a través de les publicacions científiques i les patents.
• Fixar-se només en una activitat pot donar una idea errònia de la tasca de difusió d’una universitat i del seu impacte en l’economia i en la societat.

Accés a l'article en pdf:

• CATALÀ
• ANGLÈS
• CASTELLÀ

photo: (*) Photosolde ________________________________________________________________________________

Science foresight: The future of Science

 

The Institute For the Future (IFTF) is an independent, non-profit research organization in Palo Alto (US) who produces documents, maps, forecasts and scenarios to understand the future in three main areas: 1) Global landscape; 2) People + Technology and 3) Health + Self.

Here we present the super-visual report, called "The Future of Science: 2021" Research Map

The map focuses on six big stories of science that they think will play out over the next decade:

• Decrypting the Brain
• Hacking Space
• Massively Multiplayer Data
• Sea the Future
• Strange Matter
• Engineered Evolution

I recommend to visit the IFTF website  Future of Science 2021 to go in more detail and to watch the video: Platforms for the Future: Magic and Neuroscience by Luigi Anzivino

photo: (*) Photosolde
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Compromís i transparència: dos valors per al lideratge

Aquestes setmanes s'han succeit uns quants esdeveniments a l'entorn del Sistema Sanitari Català que em van fer piular al twitter un pensament al voltant de dues paraules que em van dir: Compromís i Transparència.

Vaig piular "el compromís i la transparència són dos valors que fan gran a qui se'ls creu i els aplica i mesquins a qui se'n enfot"

Quan algú decideix esdevenir directiu d'una organització, ja sigui gran o petita i dirigir-la lo més dificil no és gestionar uns recursos que són escassos, de la manera més eficient i equitativa possible, sino gestionar les persones que conformen les organitzacions.

Un directiu tanmateix, només esdevé líder quan té incorporat en el seu ADN aquests dos valors: el compromís, envers ell mateix per mantenir la seva coherència i els seu valors, envers els altres i envers la institució i la transparència en explicar i mostrar el que s'està fent en l'organització i donar-ne comptes.

Us penjo dues fonts per aprofundir-hi:

• Un article sobre la Transparència i el Lideratge: Transparency: The Clear Path to Leadership Credibility
• Una conferència a càrrec del Prof. Àngel Castiñeira d'ESADE, a l'Hospital Sant Joan de Déu Barcelona, sobre el Compromís:  Les respostes dels professionals en temps de crisi

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some ideas to solve the health care spending everywhere

The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution from US that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. One of their research area is the Health and Health Care

One of the US problems faced is the relentless growth of health care spending, a major contributor to America's long-term fiscal imbalance.

Victor Fuchs considered by many to be the father of health economics said in 2012 in an interview in the New York Times: “If we solve our health care spending, practically all of our fiscal problems go away.”

Here in RAND-Health you can find a series of research briefs dedicated to flattening the trajectory of health care spending,

RAND Health outlines four broad strategies for constraining spending growth in the market-oriented health care system:

1. Foster efficient and accountable providers.
2. Engage and empower consumers.
3. Promote population health.
4. Facilitate high-value innovation.

Photo: Co Rentmeester—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images. Donn Clendenon, 1969

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The Foreigner's opinion about Work, Business and Life in Barcelona

 

Is Barcelona reaching the criteria of: Technology, Talent and Tolerance?

Barcelona Global is a private, independent and not-for-profit civil society platform made up of business leaders, professionals and entrepreneurs committed to Barcelona and its future.

They have presented  the results of the 1st survey Barcelona Global´s "International Professional Talent Monitor 2013".

The survey is meant to understand how local business climate, working conditions and quality of life (including cty amenities, social integration, school offer...) in Barcelona are perceived by this pool of outstanding professionals who moved to Barcelona, out of many other cities worldwide, to live and work.

Survey results are of two types, quantitative (ratings on a scale from 0 to 10) and qualitative.

• Acces to the document: Survey Results 2013
• Related Post: Technology, Talent and Tolerance

footnote: Surprisingly the survey results have been removed from the web.
 
photo: (*) Photosolde
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Gender Equality Index in European Union

The European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) from the European Union has constructed the Gender Equality Index a unique measurement tool that synthesises the complexity of gender equality as a multi-dimensional concept.

The gender approach takes into account the situation of women and men in various domains of economic and social life, including those where men are in disadvantaged situations. It consists of six core domains: work, money, knowledge, time, power, health and two satellite domains (Intersecting inequalities and violence).

The Index provides results at the domain and sub-domain level for the EU overall and for each Member State. It provides a measure of how far (or close) each Member State was from achieving gender equality in 2010.

The Gender Equality Index assigns a score from 1, total inequality, to 100, full equality.

The target is the equality point, benchmarked in 100, and a given Member State is equally treated whether a gap is to the advantage of women or men.

The Index reveals that the EU reached only half way towards a gender-equal society, with an average EU score of 54 (2010 data).

photo: (*) Photosolde
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les xifres de l'atur en la generació Babyboomer i X a "Nada es Gratis"

La Fundación de Estudios de Economía Aplicada (FEDEA) és una fundació "independent" que té com a principi fonamental ser una Fàbrica d'Idees, sempre des del rigor que proporciona la recerca econòmica tant teòrica com aplicada. 

A la seva web es pot accedir a l'Observatori Laboral de la Crisis on et mostra trimestralemnt la situació laboral dels treballadors:  els que han entrat al mercat de treball, els que n'han sortit, per sexes, edat, nivell d'estudis... La directora de l'Observatori Laboral és Sara de la Rica

Accés:Observatorio Laboral

FEDEA disposa també d'un Blog Nada es Gratis  que cal mirar, sí o sí, de manera periòdica si voleu tenir eines per a poder comprendre la realitat econòmica, poder extreure'n conclusions i arguments raonats i documentats.

La directora de l'Observatori Laboral ha publicat un post demoledor pels que som majors de 45 anys.

Accés: Los parados mayores de 45 años. Panorama desolador.

Post relacionat: where are we?

Photo: Margaret Bourke-White—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images. Coney Island parachute jump and beach, 1952

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Transparency: Inpatient and Outpatient open data

The world has suddenly changed. Recently, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in US (CMS), released a dataset showing Inpatient hospital charges to Medicare for 100 of the most common inpatient diagnosis codes and also releasing Outpatient charge data for 30 of the most common ambulatory payment codes.

Prices charged to Medicare were formerly top-secret and closely guarded. Hospitals and health systems kept this information confidential because making it public could impact how they compete with other provider institutions and could also impact complex price negotiations with private third party insurers.

The datasets have been downloaded more than 300,000 times already, and the number of downloads continues to increase. Geolocation data shows that the data has been downloaded by users in every state in the U.S. and also by users in more than 130 different countries (Source: Health 2.0, June 20, 2013)

Accés to Medicare Data:

• Inpatient Charge data
• Outpatient Charge data 

photo: (*) Photosolde
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who is that... COTEC?

COTEC és una fundació de caràcter empresarial que té com a objectiu contribuir en la promocó de la innovació tecnològica i incrementar la sensibilitat social per la tecnologia.

Val la pena estar amatent als estudis que periòdicament publica i que són accessibles només donant-se d'alta en el formulari de registre. 

Recentment ha publicat l'Informe decàleg de reptes de la innovació per a la competitivitat de l'Estat Espanyol. 10 són els reptes enumerats:

1. Millorar el sistema educatiu.
2. Aconseguir que la societat apreciï que els empresaris assumeixin els riscos de la innovació.
3. Evitar que les lleis, la fiscalitat i la regulació obstaculitzin la innovació.
4. Atraure el talent i la inversió extrangera.
5. Aconsegir que la Universitat i la Recerca pública s'impliquin plenament en la solució dels problemes de l'entorn.
6. Fer conscients a les empreses que la seva sostenibilitat depèn de la seva capacitat per a crear valor.
7. Implicar al finançament privat en la innovació.
8. Preparar a les pimes per al mercat global.
9. Aprofitar el mercat de les grans empreses i de l'administració com a tractors tecnològics.
10. Aconseguir que les pimes trobin una àmplia oferta de serveis per a la innovació.

Accés al document: DECÀLEG DE REPTES DE LA INNOVACIÓ 2013

William C. Shrout—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images. Taxicabs on Park Avenue, NYC, (1944)
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There are no perfect companies and no perfect boards but something can be done

Ellen Richstone was asked by the Editor of the NACD's magazine to write an article on "Questions to Ask Before you Join a Board".

If we read, probably we'll find some interesting ideas to propose our Boards (specially in Non Profit Organizations).

Acces to the article:What to ask before joining a board

NACD: National Association of Corporate Directors in US. An association that promotes the directors strive to deliver exemplary board performance.

photo: (*) Photosolde 
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inclusive and extractive institutions

 

Josep M Lozano autor del Blog  Persona Empresa i Societat  i  Àngel Castineira  director de la  Càtedra LideratgeS i Governança Democràtica ambdós professors d'ESADE, i a qui cal seguir de prop, van publicar un article molt actual a La Vanguardia el passat 7 de juny sobre Lideratge i Êtica Pública.

En l'article referenciaven el Llibre "Why Nations Fail" de Daron Acemoglu, Killian Professor of Economics at MIT and James A. Robinson, David Florence Professor of Government at Harvard University  on es parla del concepte d'Institucions Extractives (provoquen ineficiència  i corrupció, lligades a elits) i Institucions Inclusives (provoquen prosperitat i empoderen als seus professionals)

Un petit tros del llibre:  "....What is common about the political revolutions that successfully paved the way for more inclusive  institutions …is that they succeeded in empowering a fairly broad cross-section of society. Pluralism, the cornerstone of inclusive political institutions, requires political power to be widely held in society, and starting from extractive institutions that vest power in a narrow elite, this requires a process of empowerment...."

Accés al blog: WHY NATIONS FAIL

Michael Rougier—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images. "Model camp" for Mexican farm workers near Fullerton, Calif., 1959
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enterpreneurship i innovació: Arran del BIZ Barcelona

 

Aquesta setmana a Barcelona s'ha celebrat el BIZ Barcelona  amb conferències, estands de promoció, activitats de networking, enfocat a les PIME i als emprenedors. 

Ja que es parla tant d'empreneduria avui us penjo les conclusions d'un workshop sobre empreneduria, que el World Economic Forum va organitzar a London el passat abril de 2013 Innovation entrepreneurship and global growth. La meva sopresa ha estat veure que entre els participants no hi havia ningú de l'Estat Espanyol ni de Catalunya.
 
També us vull penjar l'accés a dos blog,s a tenir presents, que parlen, entre d'altres, sobre temes d'innovació:

• Xavier Ferràs  INNOVACIÓN 6.0
• Xavier Marcet XAVIER MARCET

Gjon Mili—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images. Runner photographed during an ICAAAA (Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America) track meet, 1938. 
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Health in All Policies: Seizing opportunities, implementing policies

 

Governance of the health sector has become even more complex and turbulent.
Globalization and decentralization, the role of the media and various pressure groups (e.g. civil society organizations) have ever greater significance. Hence, in addition to its traditional functions of financing and/or service provision, it is well-understood that the health sector must work with other sectors and multiple actors in a more complex environment in order to improve health.

This is one the key message it has been written in the new book Health in All Policies (HiAP).

Health in All Policies (HiAP) is an approach to policies that systematically takes into account the health and health-system implications of decisions, seeks synergies, and avoids harmful health impacts to improve population health and health equity. It is founded on health-related rights and obligations and has great potential to improve population health and equity.

This volume published in collaboration with the National Institute for Health and Welfare of Finland (THL), the European Observatory on Health Systems-Who and United nations research institute for social development  aims to improve our understanding of the dynamics of HiAP policy-making and implementation processes.

Acces to the book: Health in All Policies   

Fotografia extreta de: (*) photosolde
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Leadership in health

 Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things. (Peter Drucker)

Here I attach the latest report about leadership in health published by King's Fund, an independent charity working to improve health and health care in England, and a leadership survey done to a range of NHS professionals.

Patient-Centred Leadership Some key findings are:

• The leadership of the NHS at a national level needs to create conditions in which local organisations have the freedom to deliver consistently high standards of care and where the needs of patients come first.
• The quality of care provided by NHS organisations should, first and foremost, be a corporate responsibility under the leadership of boards, who must lead by example by focusing on the quality and safety of care.
• Leaders need to value and support frontline staff and ensure the main focus is on patients and their care.

Leadership Survey 2013 Some key findings are:

• The perspective changes when you are evaluating the NHS, your organization or your service
• Respondents were more positive about the quality of leadership and priority given to the quality of care in their service/team than within their wider organisation or the NHS as a whole. 
• There were significant differences of opinion between professional groups. Managers and clinicians report big disparities among themselves. 
• The main obstacles to improve care are: time, resources and organisational culture.
• The leadership qualities less seen in health care organizations are: lack of integrity, real staff engagement, long term foculs, create a positive climate. 

Fotografia extreta de: (*) photosolde
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Rankings Barcelona-Catalunya... el món

http://photosolde.blogspot.com.es/

En l'últim ranking de les ciutats més importants del món des del punt de vista turístic,elaborat per Master Card Global destination cities index 2013 Barcelona ens apareix en la 10ena posició i la 3a europea després de Londres i París. Com a ciutat més cara Barcelona ocupa la 5ena posicó del món  The World's Most Popular Tourism Cities

I en ciència a quin rànking apareix?a nivell d'universitats, publicacions...
Aquí teniu uns quants rànkings que ens mostren diferents posicions de les universitats catalanes i espanyoles i a nivell de països. Per triar i remenar.

1. QS World University Rankings® QS Top universities
2. Ranking de Shangai Academic ranking world universities
3. Ranking elaborat per equips investigadors de la Universitat Granada i de Navarra EC3metrics. Rankings I-UGR de Universidades Españolas según Campos y Disciplinas Científicas
4. Ranking de posicionamiento de las universidades a través de datos abiertos publicados en las web, elaborat pel Laboratori de Cibermetría del CSIC Ranking WEB universidades CSIC
5. Ranking dels diferents països en funció de les seves publicacions i cites  The SCImago Journal & Country Rank

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Women leadership in health

Fa uns dies vaig ser convidada a participar en un grup nominal sobre Col.laboració Públic-Privada en l'Entorn Sanitari. Participavem 3 dones d'un total de 13 (23%), 2 (15%) tenien posicions "executives" en les seves organitzacions i 1 estava a l'atur.

Reflecteixen aquestes dades la realitat?

Us adjunto un parell de reportatges elaborats per XX in Health filial de l'entitat sense afany de lucre  Rock Health, dedicada a l'empreneduria i a la combinació salut i tecnologia.

• XX in Health Reports
• Gender Differences in the Salaries of Physician Researchers (free download) 

A nivell de Catalunya algunes dades sobre el paper la Pèrdua de Talent femeni, elaborades per l'Observatori dona empresa economia estimen que l'abandonament del mercat laboral de les dones universitàries suposa un 6,2% del PIB (2006) uns 12.000 milions d'euros. 
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World Development Indicators 2013

Topics: Agriculture & Rural Development, Aid Effectiveness, Climate Change, Economic Policy & External Debt, Education, Energy & Mining, Environment, Financial Sector, Gender, Health, Infrastructure, Labor & Social Protection, Poverty, Private Sector, Public Sector, Science & Technology, Social Development, Urban Development

All the new features of the WDI can be accessed from data.worldbank.org/wdi,
You can choose topic, country or indicator. World View includes a review of global progress toward the Millennium Development Goals.

Available in English, Spanish, French and Chinese.
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Quality means better science

 
La setmana passada la UB juntament amb la UPC van organitzar una Jornada sobre Qualitat  a la Recerca. Es va debatre la importànica d'introduir els sistemes de Gestió de la Qualitat Total en el món de la Recerca en especial en la bàsica.

Dades mostren que només l'11 % dels estudis publicats poden ser "replicats" seguint les dades dels papers publicats. Algunes entrades lligades al debat: 

• Nature 2012
• Curing cancer throwing spaghetti at wall
• NYTIMES 2012

Els models de Gestió de la Qualitat Total com per exemple les normes ISO 9001-2008 són eines que haurien d'introduir-se en els grups i centres de recerca. Cal però no confondre l'objectiu amb les eines i per tant no hem d'oblidar que introduir la gestió de la qualitat no és passar un examen (certificació) i omplir papers (SOP, PNT's) sinó que és canviar la cultura i la manera de fer les coses del grup o centre de recerca  Quality Management Principles (ISO)

Molt interessant la presentació del Dr. Miquel Llobera cap del grup de recerca Metabolisme Lipidic-LPL de la UB, grup certificat amb la ISO 9001: 2008 Grup Metabolisme- CEMERET

La fotografia de l'entrada està treta del web del grup. 
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Tecnologia, Talent i Tolerància

De la ma d'en Xavier Testar @xtestar he descobert el nom de Richard Florida urbanista Director of the Martin Prosperity Institute  University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management i fundador de la consultora Creative Class Group.

Escriptor del llibre The Rise of the Creative Class del que n'ha publicat una reedició renovada el 2012, Florida assenyala que la competitivitat i la riquesa vénen determinades, cada vegada més, per la capacitat d’innovació i creativitat de les ciutats, les regions i els països

Amb ell apareix el concepte de “classe creativa” com a contribuidora del desenvolupament regional. Són aquelles ocupacions en què els individus es comprometen amb la resolució de problemes complexos, la qual cosa implica dosis altes de judici independent, alts nivells d’educació i capital humà. Semba que empíricament es pot corroborar que la classe creativa tendeix a situar-se en llocs que reuneixen uns certs requisits de “qualitat” i, en particular, en comunitats obertes i diverses on la diferència és ben acollida i l’accés a la creativitat cultural és poc costós. El resultat és que les activitats que formen part de la “nova economia” es localitzen en llocs que combinen les denominades 3 “T’s”: Tecnologia, Talent i Tolerància. 

En el web del Departament d'Empresa i Ocupació de la Generalitat de Catalunya podeu trobar en Català i Castellà el treball de les autores Rosa Urbanos i  Alexandrina Stoyanova: Tecnologia, talent i tolerància en el desenvolupament econòmic de Catalunya (2011) on apliquen el model de Richad Florida Papers d'Economia Industrial i a on es pot veure com es comporten les CCAA de l'Estat Espanyol sota aquests conceptes.
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World Health Statistics 2013

World Health Statistics 2013 contains WHO’s annual compilation of health-related data for its 194 Member States, and includes a summary of the progress made towards achieving the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and associated targets.

This year, it also includes highlight summaries on the topics of reducing the gaps between the world’s most-advantaged and least-advantaged countries, and on current trends in official development assistance (ODA) for health.

• Every day 800 women die due to complications of pregnancy and childbirth 
• 80% of death from malaria occur just in 14 countries  
• Children in low-income countries are 16 times more likely to die before reaching the age of five than children in high-income countries

Direct acces to the page:  WHO STATISTICS 2013  Available in English, French and Spanish. 
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Where are we?

All work and all play

L'empresa box1824 de Brasil, especialitzada en tendències de comportament i de consum ens presenta aquest video sobre les generacions Babyboomers, X i les noves generacions Millenials. Les organitzacions coneixen les necessitats i com es comporten cadascuna?  

ACCÉS AL VIDEO All work and all play
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Benvinguts al blog/Wellcome

Aquesta és la primera entrada al blog. Un espai on la meva il·lusió és poder compartir aquelles "tendències informatives" que poden ser del vostre interès.

Són tendències que per la meva deformació, experiència, ganes de descobrir coses noves o simplement perquè hi he ensopegat, m'interessen i m'agrada compartir.

No pretenc donar cap opinió del que pengi, només un petit fragment sobre el tema i l'enllaç directe a la font.

Wellcome to the blog. My goal is to share information tendencies about health, innovation, social media, organizations, management, women, design, people... With only a small sintesis of the information I'll share the link that wil take you directly to the page.  

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